I'm not too sure why some people are disappointed to find that the a380 has products consistent with the rest of the fleet. This isn't Concorde. It's not a revolutionary aircraft that serves a different market or purpose. It's just bigger. If you look to other airlines, their offering is largely consistent with their other fleet plans.
Originally Posted by
hillrider
AA and BA run a joint business on the Transatlantic so they probably don't care.
Originally Posted by
Jumbodriver
Exactly, all Joint business flights are revenue shared. BA gets around 60% AA 30% IB 10% no matter what colour the plane is.
I'm fully aware of the arrangement...
Originally Posted by
elitetraveler
While I know the JV means all revenue shared, at the end of the day, alliances come, go and partners change. One would think BA needs to protect preference for its product - obviously hard product in J being an important component of the offering.
This is generally sums up my point. Complacency isn't good for business. AA is making the investment. If BA sits around saying we get 60% of the revenue regardless and then a large amount of traffic shifts over to AA, AA might begin question the terms of the agreement.
Furthermore, jointly marketing two airline's products where one is notably better than the other would in my opinion look worse than comparing two competitors - especially when the price tags are the same. It just doesn't look good and could affect people's choices on routes that aren't under the JV.
You'll have companies that lead and those that follow. Leading has held BA in good stead in the past. JVs allow an for a good opportunity to lead together.